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Lionsgate Buys ‘Blood Ties’ Out Of Cannes

Blood Ties didn’t receive the best response after debuting at Cannes, and that didn’t come as a huge surprise once it was announced that the film wouldn’t compete at the festival. However, that didn’t stop buyers from having interest in the Guillaume Canet film.

It’s been reported that Lionsgate bought the distributing rights to Canet’s first English-language film. According to reports Blood Ties made $2 million from Lionsgate for the rights to distribute the film domestically, which is the highest price paid so far at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Despite opening to poor reviews, this seems like a positive spin, and that Lionsgate has faith in its commercial success. Hopefully this means Canet will fix up where he went wrong for a strong release.

Blood Ties is based on a novel by Bruno and Michel Papet and takes place in the 1970s. Its central story centers around two brothers who are polar opposites. The two brothers, Frank and Chris Pierzynski lead a life of two very different worlds in Brooklyn. Chris is a cop, while Frank falls in the trappings of a life of crime. Their worlds collide as the NYPD puts heat on the organized crime, which causes an inevitable face off between the two brothers.

Billy Crudup and Clive Own are in the leads as the brothers at odds, while the illustrious supporting cast features James Caan, Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Lili Taylor.

Although this is Canet’s first English-speaking film, this isn’t his first crime drama. In fact, this is what he knows how to do best, as his 2006 flick Tell No One drew in attention. Hopefully Blood Ties didn’t receive distribution only because of its glitzy cast. Instead for Canet’s sake lets hope Lionsgate will give at least some pointers to the director.

So far it’s not known when Lionsgate will release the film, but we’re certain now with a lock on the rights that Canet has time to clean it up.